Optimal duration of whole-body cryostimulation exposure to achieve target skin temperature: influence of body mass index-a randomized cross-over controlled trial.

Background: The efficacy of whole-body cryostimulation (WBC) may be influenced by individual characteristics. The aim of this study is to determine the optimal exposure time required to reach the analgesic threshold of 13.6 °C, which has been proposed to be a target temperature to be reached at skin level.

The effects of cold exposure (cold water immersion, whole- and partial- body cryostimulation) on cardiovascular and cardiac autonomic control responses in healthy individuals: A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.

Background: Cryostimulation and cold-water immersion (CWI) have recently gained widespread attention due to their association with changes in cardiovascular and cardiac autonomic control responses. Therefore, the aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to identify the global impact of such cold exposures on cardiovascular and cardiac autonomic activity.

Methods: Three databases (PubMed, Embase, Web-of-Science) were used.

Intercostal muscle oxygenation and expiratory loaded breathing at rest: Respiratory pattern effect.

In patients with airway obstruction, an increase in breathing frequency at rest is commonly associated with a dynamic hyperinflation (DH). In such a situation, intercostal muscle oxygenation may be disturbed. This hypothesis was examined in a context of simulated airway obstruction in healthy subjects.

Does branched-chain amino acid supplementation improve pulmonary rehabilitation effect in COPD?

Background: Muscle wasting is frequent in chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) and associated with low branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). We hypothesized that BCAA supplementation could potentiate the effect of a pulmonary rehabilitation program (PRP) by inducing muscular change.

Materials And Methods: Sixty COPD patients (GOLD 2-3) were involved in an ambulatory 4-week PRP either with BCAA oral daily supplementation or placebo daily supplementation in a randomized double-blind design.

Effect of expiratory loaded breathing during moderate exercise on intercostal muscle oxygenation.

Background: In patients with obstructive lung disease, maintaining adequate ventilation during exercise may require greater contraction of the respiratory muscles, which may lead to a compression of muscle capillaries. Furthermore, dynamic hyperinflation (DH) is frequent during exercise in these patients, as it allows to reach higher expiratory flows and to satisfy respiratory demand. However, in such situation, intercostal muscles are likely to be stretched, which could affect the diameter of their capillaries.

Translation and Cultural Adaptation of PROactive Instruments for COPD in French and Influence of Weather and Pollution on Its Difficulty Score.

Introduction: The recently developed daily and clinical visit PROactive physical activity in COPD (PPAC) instruments are hybrid tools to objectively quantify the level of physical activity and the difficulties experienced in everyday life. Our aim was to translate these instruments for the French-speaking chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) community worldwide and evaluate the influence of weather and pollution on difficulty score.

Methods: The translation procedure was conducted following the guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation process.

Intercostal muscle oxygenation during expiratory load breathing at rest.

Background: During acute bronchial obstruction, despite a higher work of breathing, blood supply and oxygen availability may be reduced in intercostal muscles because of mechanical constraints. This hypothesis was assessed in healthy subjects breathing with and without expiratory load (ETL).

Methods: Eleven men (24 ± 2 years) breathed at rest for 5 min in unloaded condition and for 20 min through a 20-cmHO ETL.

Determining the minimally important difference in quadriceps strength in individuals with COPD using a fixed dynamometer.

Background: Measurement of quadriceps muscular force is recommended in individuals with COPD, notably during a pulmonary rehabilitation program (PRP). However, the tools used to measure quadriceps maximal voluntary contraction (QMVC) and the clinical relevance of the results, as well as their interpretation for a given patient, remain a matter of debate. The objective of this study was to estimate the minimally important difference (MID) of QMVC using a fixed dynamometer in individuals with COPD undergoing a PRP.

No compensatory lung growth after resection in a one-year follow-up cohort of patients with lung cancer.

Background: As compensatory lung growth after lung resection has been studied in animals of various ages and in one case report in a young adult, it has not been studied in a cohort of adults operated for lung cancer.

Methods: A prospective study including patients with lung cancer was conducted over two years. Parenchymal mass was calculated using computed tomography before (M0) and at 3 and 12 months (M3 and M12) after surgery.

Sit-to-stand tests for COPD: A literature review.

Background: Sit-to-stand tests (STST) have recently been developed as easy-to-use field tests to evaluate exercise tolerance in COPD patients. As several modalities of the test exist, this review presents a synthesis of the advantages and limitations of these tools with the objective of helping health professionals to identify the STST modality most appropriate for their patients.

Method: Seventeen original articles dealing with STST in COPD patients have been identified and analysed including eleven on 1min-STST and four other versions of the test (ranging from 5 to 10 repetitions and from 30 s to 3 min).

Is the 1-minute sit-to-stand test a good tool for the evaluation of the impact of pulmonary rehabilitation? Determination of the minimal important difference in COPD.

Background: The 1-minute sit-to-stand (STS) test could be valuable to assess the level of exercise tolerance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is a need to provide the minimal important difference (MID) of this test in pulmonary rehabilitation (PR).

Methods: COPD patients undergoing the 1-minute STS test before PR were included.

Feasibility of intercostal blood flow measurement by echo-Doppler technique in healthy subjects.

Intercostal artery blood flow supplies the external and internal intercostal muscles, which are inspiratory and expiratory muscles. Intercostal blood flow measured by the echo-Doppler (ED) technique has not previously been reported in humans. This study describes the feasibility of this measurement during free and loaded breathing in healthy subjects.

Pulmonary circulation and gas exchange at exercise in Sherpas at high altitude.

Tibetans have been reported to present with a unique phenotypic adaptation to high altitude characterized by higher resting ventilation and arterial oxygen saturation, no excessive polycythemia, and lower pulmonary arterial pressures (Ppa) compared with other high-altitude populations. How this affects exercise capacity is not exactly known. We measured aerobic exercise capacity during an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test, lung diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DL(CO)) and nitric oxide (DL(NO)) at rest, and mean Ppa (mPpa) and cardiac output by echocardiography at rest and at exercise in 13 Sherpas and in 13 acclimatized lowlander controls at the altitude of 5,050 m in Nepal.

Lung membrane conductance and capillary volume derived from the NO and CO transfer in high-altitude newcomers.

Acute exposure to high altitude may induce changes in carbon monoxide (CO) membrane conductance (DmCO) and capillary lung volume (Vc). Measurements were performed in 25 lowlanders at Brussels (D0), at 4,300 m after a 2- or 3-day exposure (D2,3) without preceding climbing, and 5 days later (D7,8), before and after an exercise test, under a trial with two arterial pulmonary vasodilators or a placebo. The nitric oxide (NO)/CO transfer method was used, assuming both infinite and finite values to the NO blood conductance (θNO).

Pulmonary vascular reserve and exercise capacity at sea level and at high altitude.

It has been suggested that increased pulmonary vascular reserve, as defined by reduced pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and increased pulmonary transit of agitated contrast measured by echocardiography, might be associated with increased exercise capacity. Thus, at altitude, where PVR is increased because of hypoxic vasoconstriction, a reduced pulmonary vascular reserve could contribute to reduced exercise capacity. Furthermore, a lower PVR could be associated with higher capillary blood volume and an increased lung diffusing capacity.

Exercise pathophysiology in patients with chronic mountain sickness exercise in chronic mountain sickness.

Background: Chronic mountain sickness (CMS) is characterized by a combination of excessive erythrocytosis,severe hypoxemia, and pulmonary hypertension, all of which affect exercise capacity.

Methods: Thirteen patients with CMS and 15 healthy highlander and 15 newcomer lowlander control subjects were investigated at an altitude of 4,350 m (Cerro de Pasco, Peru). All of them underwent measurements of diffusing capacity of lung for nitric oxide and carbon monoxide at rest, echocardiography for estimation of mean pulmonary arterial pressure and cardiac output at rest and at exercise, and an incremental cycle ergometer cardiopulmonary exercise test.

Improvement in lung diffusion by endothelin A receptor blockade at high altitude.

Lung diffusing capacity has been reported variably in high-altitude newcomers and may be in relation to different pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). Twenty-two healthy volunteers were investigated at sea level and at 5,050 m before and after random double-blind intake of the endothelin A receptor blocker sitaxsentan (100 mg/day) vs. a placebo during 1 wk.

Pulmonary capillary blood volume and membrane conductance in Andeans and lowlanders at high altitude: a cross-sectional study.

Lung carbon monoxide (CO) transfer and pulmonary capillary blood volume (Vc) at high altitudes have been reported as being higher in native highlanders compared to acclimatised lowlanders but large discrepancies appears between the studies. This finding raises the question of whether hypoxia induces pulmonary angiogenesis. Eighteen highlanders living in Bolivia and 16 European lowlander volunteers were studied.

The effect of posture-induced changes in peripheral nitric oxide uptake on exhaled nitric oxide.

Airway and alveolar NO contributions to exhaled NO are being extracted from exhaled NO measurements performed at different flow rates. To test the robustness of this method and the validity of the underlying model, we deliberately induced a change in NO uptake in the peripheral lung compartment by changing body posture between supine and prone. In 10 normal subjects, we measured exhaled NO at target flows ranging from 50 to 350 ml/s in supine and prone postures.

Does exercise have deleterious consequences for the lungs of patients with chronic heart failure?

Changes in lung function in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), usually reported at rest, may be exacerbated during exercise and induce post-exercise effects. We investigated the hypothesis that post-exercise induced changes in lung function in CHF patients are due to the consequences of left atrial overload. Twenty-one CHF patients and six healthy subjects (Ctrl) participated in this study.

Deciphering the nitric oxide to carbon monoxide lung transfer ratio: physiological implications.

Using simultaneous nitric oxide and carbon monoxide lung transfer measurements (T(LNO) and T(LCO)), the membrane transfer capacity (D(m)) and capillary lung volume (V(c)) as well as the dimensionless ratio T(LNO)/T(LCO) can be calculated. The significance of this ratio is yet unclear. Theoretically, the T(LNO)/T(LCO) ratio should be inversely related to the product of both lung alveolar capillary membrane (mu) and blood sheet thicknesses (K).

Echocardiographic right ventricular strain analysis in chronic heart failure.

Objective: We sought to compare the additive value of right ventricular (RV) function assessed by longitudinal systolic strain (epsilon% - ROI: 9.2 at 10.8 mm) with cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) or brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in patients with heart failure (HF).

Membrane conductance in trained and untrained subjects using either steady state or single breath measurements of NO transfer.

The aim of this work was to define the relationship between membrane conductance for NO (Dm) and physical activity by using either the steady state NO transfer (T(LNO)SS) or the single breath method (T(LNO)SB), making the hypothesis that NO transfer is only limited by the membrane. Alterations in T(LNO)SS with lung volume during tidal ventilation were measured in six subjects at rest and during steady exercise at 30, 60, and 80% of maximal aerobic power (MAP). A fast responding chemoluminescent NO analyser was used.

Expiratory muscles modulate negative expiratory pressure-induced flow during muscular exercise.

The recruitment of expiratory muscles during exercise might be altered by the application of negative expiratory pressure (NEP) inducing a feature of expiratory flow limitation (EFL) called muscle EFL. To check this hypothesis EFL and expiratory muscle EMG (ExpEMG) were measured at rest and during exercise in eight healthy subjects. Six subjects performed isocapnic hyperventilation.